And the MorphOS team continues to expand their hardware support. They released MorphOS version 2.5 today, which adds support for Apple's eMac computers (the 1.25Ghz models, the 1.42 models have not yet been tested). Of course, there's also a whole load of fixes and improvements, too.

I've got it running on a 1.25 GHz MacMini and whilst it is very fast, performance can be sporadic when using OWB. The OS itself is stunning for a niche operating system, but I have fought far too much than is comfortable with bad design partly inherit to Amiga's history. I find it an impressive piece of work, but a tough operating system to love. I want to write a review but I am always left questioning alternative operating systems themselves as I try to reconcile the many hurdles I found trying to do very basic tasks.

This is an OS for Amigans. No effort is made for anybody else.

I'm looking forward to trying out 4.2.5 and I hope they've improved in ways that will let me gather my thoughts and come to a conclusion as to what this OSes place is.

Maybe it is just the fact you are experienced with different Operating System features, and nowadays you can't put off with ease your habit and abandon the procedures and customized features you have knowledge of, and embrace another OS and another kind of procedures and features, you are completely unaware...

...Or just it feels not-natural for you to perform OS activities that just seem odd to your past experience.

However it will be interesting to read some review from you, as we Amigans want to explore what are the points (features, keyboard sequences, script handling, preferences adjusting) of any our AmigaOS-Like systems (AmigaOS, Aros, MorphOS) that are difficult to understand for new users, or those features that newcomers can't handle properly with ease.

So then, we all users can ask the developers to modify the OS facilites in those parts that are difficult to understand, in order to create a more friendly experience to those who approach Amiga-Like Operating Systems for the first time, or even give thanks to the people who notice and signal bugs that none evidenced before.

I have used a variety of OSes including the equally quirky RISC OS; and as a designer I can [for the most part] see beyond what I have experienced in one OS when it comes to another. I understand that one OS does one thing a different than another, but I also understand that different !== right.

I'm a long time Amiga user (using 16Mhz A3000 to post this), but I found that many of the "Amiga things" I've become accustomed to are not part of the OS at all, but third-party add-ons, programs and hacks that are Amiga-only. When I start with a basic Amiga setup, I'm a bit lost until I can get my favourite filemanager, tools, hacks, etc. loaded up. I can certainly understand a newcomer feeling lost. It takes time to get used to different ways of doing things and time to get programs and utilities that work the way you want. Luckily, Amiga has always been easy to hack and change.

I've always wanted to try MorphOS and I probably will when they support PowerMac G4. I'm sure even I will feel a bit lost until I can get it set up similar to the way my other Amigas are.

I guess it's true that Amiga differs a lot from other OS's more common, that people has a bigger chance of "being used to".

But if you compare MorphOS 2.5 with other OS's targeted to the same Amiga audience, I see many things present in MorphOS that the others don't have, that should make life a lot easier for "an outsider". The file manager for example, centralized prefs, a very solid system for mime-type handling, to name a few things that I think makes the life a litter easier for a complete "newbie".

Maybe someone should make a "hitchhikers guide to MorphOS", a guide that takes a user used to other OS's (like Windows for example, everyone has experience from Windows) and step by step shows how common things are handled in the MorphOS way?

[i]Maybe someone should make a "hitchhikers guide to MorphOS", a guide that takes a user used to other OS's (like Windows for example, everyone has experience from Windows) and step by step shows how common things are handled in the MorphOS way?

There is the Pegasos Book PDF online, and even if it barely covers MorphOS upto 1.4.5, then it deals with MorphOS starting from the basics.